updated 02:15 pm EST, Mon November 22, 2010

Adds AirPlay, AirPrint, free Find My iPhone

The delayed iOS 4.2 firmware has finally been released. The firmware is the first version of iOS 4 to reach the iPad, and makes several feature upgrades, such as support for streaming music, photos and video to an Apple TV via AirPlay, and printing to a handful of HP printers by way of AirPrint. Apple notes that greater printer support and AirPlay-compatible speaker options are expected over the course of the next several months. [updated]

Apple has also announced that Find My iPhone is now a free service, detached from MobileMe. People must however download the Find My iPhone app from the App Store, and have an iPad, iPhone 4 or fourth-generation iPod touch. The company has also opened up direct TV show rentals to iPad owners, giving them a standard 30-day start window and a 48-hour completion time.

Miscellaneous features include expanded enterprise support, and improvements for users with disabilities. Support for 25 more languages has been added including Korean, Portuguese and traditional Chinese. In Safari, users should now be able to find and highlight text.

iOS 4.2.1 is already available as a gold master for developers; it remains to be seen if this is the version of iOS 4.2 that will reach the public.

4.2.1 Already???

Note to Steve J.

Steve,
iOS 4.2.1...you're kidding, right? Of all the features everyday Mac Users might want, certainly the vast majority would ask for **printing** if only one feature could be added.

All the competition Apple now has for tablets, and all that is soon to hit the market. All of the many months since iPad was introduced, and the collective IQ at One Cupertino Drive comes up w/ printing to FIVE HP models only? Seriously? Forget drivers, ...there's no way to send an iPad doc to another Mac and let it do the printing?

Very underwhelmed. Have BEEN waiting, so please don't tell us to wait more......

Making Air Print work for network printers

There is a solution for that....http://netputing.com/airprinthacktivator
Run the tool, delete printers from system settings, ad printers from system settings, activate printer sharing. That's it.....
Then you can print to any network printer on your wifi network.